DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

Winter 2025 Class Schedule

Courses are subject to change. Check Caesar for the most up-to-date list of the current quarter.

Winter 2025 course descriptions

PHIL 101-8-20: First-Year Writing Seminar: Plato on Love and Philosophy

In this class, we will read Plato’s two masterpieces on erotic love: the Symposium and the Phaedrus. We will explore Plato’s treatment of the role of eros in human life, and consider the connection he draws between this phenomenon and the practice of philosophy. Our engagement with these texts will form the foundation for a series of structured writing assignments aimed at developing and refining your academic writing skills.

PHIL 101-8-20: First-Year Writing Seminar: The Self

In this course we will discuss philosophical questions about the nature of the self, raised and answered in readings from the history of philosophy and contemporary philosophical writings. Questions to be discussed may include: Is self-awareness necessary or sufficient for selfhood? What guarantees the continuity of personal identity over time? To what degree is the self constituted by its social context? Are there good or bad ways to be a self? How can one cultivate one’s self, or is it better to try to avoid being a self at all? As with any first-year seminar, the course will also involve frequent writing assignments, including both informal exercises and formal argumentative papers.

PHIL 101-8-20: First-Year Writing Seminar: Discrimination and Oppression

The course will focus on questions about the nature of discrimination in society. We will discuss responses to questions like: What distinguishes discrimination from other social ills like domination and exploitation? Can thoughts and ideas be discriminatory? How should we identify cases of discrimination in legal settings or in social science? Do algorithms discriminate? What should we do about the effects of discrimination? We will read a variety of texts from legal fields, sociology, and philosophy, as well as public-oriented news and opinion pieces. This course will be focused on improving your written work and your writing process. It aims to build skills necessary for writing essays, such as clarity of prose, critical thinking, creativity, and editing.

PHIL 220: Introduction to Critical Theory

In this class, we will focus on the foundations of critical theory in the works of Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, and Weber, paying particular attention to the methods they deploy in the treatment of moral and religious phenomena. Lectures will primarily involve a close analysis and discussion of the readings.

PHIL 224: Philosophy, Race, and Racism

This course provides a broad overview of philosophical discussions of race and racism. In this overview, we will focus on what race and racism are It engages theoretical questions such as, what do we mean when we say “race”, and is there a concept of race that undergirds users’ many different conceptions of race? Do races exist, and what are races if they do exist? What is implicit bias? What is racism? This course also engages practical questions such as, what is the relationship between race and health, do we have good reasons to prescribe medications in accordance with race? Is it moral to believe that humans are divided into races, and what ought we to do with race and race-talk given overriding moral concerns? Are implicit racial biases morally condemnable? How does race and racial perceptions impact law? Is racism permanent?

PHIL 254: Introduction to Philosophy of the Natural Sciences

The course will introduce students to metaphysical and epistemological issues raised by modern natural science. We will be guided by nested "what does it take"-questions. For example: What does it take for natural science to be -in societies with a scientific culture—the legitimate authority on matters of fact about nature? What does it take for a system of assertions to count as a good scientific theory? What does it take for a scientific theory to be testable by evidence like observational and experimental data (and: what does it take for certain series of experiences to count as data, observations, experimental results?)? What does it take for a given theory to be better supported by the available evidence than its competitors? What does it take for a given theory to explain the known phenomena in an area of knowledge? What does it take for an explanatory scientific theory to be credited with reference to underlying structures of reality? We will begin with a brief overview of the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17 th century, and then turn to contemporary discussions on the problem of induction, the problem of the underdetermination of theory choice by the available data, the problem of rationality, the problem of realism. This will include reflecting on reasons philosophers of science have established against some common preconceptions about what it takes to be entitled to scientific objectivity, such as that science provides ‘proof\', or that there is one simple, context-free ‘scientific method\', or that scientific objectivity is free of considerations of values or informed judgment. Many contemporary doubt-manufacturers selectively use parts of such reasons to suggest the skeptical attitude that science produces just one among many optional beliefs about reality, and that others (like religion, or what serves the oil industry) are equally valid. Against this, we will see that the reasons against proof as the standard (and in favor of evidential support and fallibility) in fact don\'t weaken but instead strengthen the justifications of why we ought to trust scientifically formed belief where it and its institutional and social conditions are available more than any other (purported) sources of information on nature.

PHIL 261: Introduction to Political Philosophy

An introduction to some of the core problems of political philosophy through a study of major historical and contemporary figures. Topics to be discussed include: the sources and limits of legitimate political authority; the meaning of central political values like liberty, equality, and solidarity; and the sources of political stability in a multicultural society.

PHIL 269: Bioethics

This course is a study of moral and political problems related to biomedicine and biotechnology. In the first part of the course, we will study the physician-patient relationship. We will consider what values ought to govern that relationship, how those values may conflict, and how such conflicts are best resolved. In the second part of the course, we will turn to some specific ethical challenges related to biotechnology, including abortion, genetic manipulation, and physician-assisted suicide. We will close the course by surveying the field of public health ethics, with particular attention to ethical issues related to global pandemic preparedness and response.

PHIL 273-2: Brady Program: The Good Life

In this course we will think about what makes for a good human life. We’ll start by studying various philosophical theories of wellbeing –– does the good life consist in having one’s desires satisfied? In having as much pleasure (and as little pain) as possible? As having or achieving certain specific goods? We’ll end by thinking about some possible necessary components of good lives: for example, morality, friendships, meaning, achievements, knowledge, pleasure, and health/ability. Across the whole quarter and via thinking about the good life, we’ll focus on developing our philosophical writing skills. 

PHIL 275: Climate Change and Sustainability: Ethical Dimensions

An examination of moral and political challenges related to climate change and sustainability, as well as philosophical approaches to addressing these challenges. Topics to be addressed include: the fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of climate change mitigation and adaptation; the feasibility and desirability of perpetual economic growth; the moral status of nature and non-human animals; the demands of climate justice; and the ethics of geoengineering.

PHIL 280: Introduction to the Philosophy of Art

In this class we will consider some foundational questions in the philosophy of art and aesthetics: Is aesthetic value objective or subjective? Can one give a 'theory of art'? What is the relationship between art and morality? Might art be dangerous? What is art, anyway? We will explore these questions through careful engagement with a range of historical and contemporary texts, beginning with Plato's famous attacks on the arts, and ending with present-day authors discussing the role of art within our contemporary world.

PHIL 324: Studies in African American Philosophy

In 1940, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in Dusk of Dawn that: “As American Negroes, we believe in unity of racial effort, so far as this is necessary for self-defense and self-expression, leading ultimately to the goal of a united humanity and the abolition of all racial distinctions.” Among the many important ideas to which Du Bois words lead, one may find in it justification for the idea that in the face of racial oppression Black Americans have a special duty to unify on the basis of of race—even if race distinctions are false or arbitrary. Black American intellectuals have a lengthy history of debating this issue. This course considers this debate. Do African Americans have a duty to unify on the basis of race for the purpose of eradicating racial oppression? We will examine different philosophical theories relating to Black solidarity.

PHIL 325: Philosophy of Mind

In this course we will be exploring several of the core topics philosophers have addressed in connection with the nature of mind and it place in nature. These include the nature of consciousness, the mind-body problem, the nature of thought and other psychological states, the nature of imagination, and the nature of the self.

PHIL 328: Classics of Analytic Philosophy

In this course, we will study some of the major figures in early analytic philosophy. The basic orientation of the course is systematic, although the historical emergence of the ideas will structure the order of studying the figures in the seminar. The main systematic motives are the idea to solve traditional problems of modern philosophy by logical and linguistic analysis, which yields the basic features associated with the linguistic turn in philosophical methodology. Another theme is the ‘naturalizing’ idea that the role of philosophy is that of at most a partner (if not a part) of science. The leading question tying together both is how the notion of what it is to be meaningful and representing the world correctly changes throughout a stepwise process of philosophical elucidation. Some especially illuminating and important part of the work done in the period called ‘the age of analysis’ was done by women philosophers whose contributions were over time (after WW II was fought by the men) unjustly “forgotten” from the canonical texts taken as characterizing the main insights of analytic philosophy. One aim of the course is to set the canon right on this score by including women philosophers’ contributions in the emerging discussions over the role, power, and limits of analysis as a method. On the whole, the course aims at illustrating how in the course of analysis genuinely philosophical problems and issues (from conditions of knowledge of the world and other minds to those for norms and judgments of evaluative correctness) made their way from a transcendental domain into the reach of human reason, and thus opened philosophers (and contemporary thinking) up to unprecedented solutions and promises of revolutionary re-conceptions of what it takes for human beings to represent, know, and orient ourselves in the world.

PHIL 351: Advanced Topics in Philosophical Logic: Set Theory and the Infinite

Axiomatic set theory was developed to provide a background theory for mathematics more generally, as well as to address paradoxes arising from a naive conception of sets. It also generates a powerful theory of the infinite that, interestingly, leaves open some of the most natural questions it raises--chief among them Cantor's Continuum Hypothesis on the relative size of the collection of real numbers. This class will elaborate the iterative conception of sets, its relationship to the standard ZFC axioms, and will develop the theory of infinite ordinals and cardinals with the goal of establishing classical independence results.

PHIL 355: Scientific Method in the Social Sciences

Science is often considered a value-free enterprise. Scientists work in labs following the scientific method and provide society with relevant scientific facts. Policymakers then decide, based on their values, how to act on these facts. However, this picture does not fit the social sciences. Social scientists study social phenomena that seem to be defined according to particular social values. Well-being is something that is good for you, divorce is bad for you. Economists use models that make unrealistic assumptions about human behavior, yet still predict market outcomes. International indicators assess which countries have the most gendered violence, but key types of violence are left out so that more countries will report their data. Climate scientists must decide how to communicate their climate predictions (including their likelihood and the severity of their consequences) to policy makers and the public. In this course, we will evaluate methods such as economic games, sociological indicators, idealized economic models, self-report surveys, causal analysis of big data, and generative AI. In each case, we will assess to what extent these methods help us provide knowledge about our social world.

PHIL 357: Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology: Conventions, norms, and other social facts

Metaphysics is the study of what there is, and what entities are like. By extension, social metaphysics is the study of what social entities there are and what they are like. This class in social metaphysics will focus on questions related to the behavioral regularities that hold across members of a group. In particular, we will closely consider the differences between social kinds, social norms, conventions, and other kinds of social facts. To explore these topics, we will take an interdisciplinary path. We will anchor the conversation in philosophy but weave in and out of the social and cognitive sciences while considering how and why different regularities seem to hold. In addition to understanding how regularities obtain, we will also focus on how to change such regularities when they are harmful or oppressive to members of a group.

PHIL 358: Epistemology

In this class we will explore traditional topics in the theory of knowledge – skepticism, the nature of (and prospects for) knowledge and rational belief, the sources of knowledge – from a variety of perspectives, and we will conclude by exploring what, if anything, we can know (and do) about the limits of our knowledge.

PHIL 373-3: The Civically Engaged Life

PHIL 401-1: Proseminar: Classics of Pragmatism

In this course, we will examine some of the classics of American Pragmatism including works by C. S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey.

PHIL 402-2: Proseminar II

Continuation of PHIL 402-1

PHIL 410-2: Special Topics in Philosophy: Epistemic Reparations

Much work in social epistemology focuses on the various kinds of epistemic wrongs that may be perpetrated against others but far less attention has been devoted to how to engage in the reparative work that is needed in response. In this course, we will explore different kinds of epistemic reparations, which can be understood as intentionally reparative actions in the form of epistemic goods given to those epistemically wronged by parties who acknowledge these wrongs and whose reparative actions are intended to redress them.

PHIL 410-3: Special Topics in Philosophy: Understanding Human Rights

The normative appeal of human rights in contemporary politics is an astonishing development. In fact, over the past decades most countries in the world have ratified at least some of the core human rights conventions and treaties. Although human rights have become the lingua franca of international political discourse, there is still a lot of disagreement on what human rights are as well as on what human rights there are. Moreover, on the wake of globalization, it is becoming increasingly difficult to answer the question of who has which human rights obligations towards whom. The traditional answer that only states have human rights obligations towards their own populations is becoming less and less plausible in light of the impact that actions of global economic institutions or transnational corporations have on the ability of states to protect human rights. These difficulties fuel recent criticisms of the human rights project that portray it as either insufficiently ambitious for achieving global justice or even as directly complicit in the perpetuation of injustices. With these problems in view, we will examine the main philosophical approaches to human rights currently under discussion to assess the plausibility of the answers they provide to these difficult normative questions.

PHIL 410-4: Special Topics in Philosophy: Pragmatic Inferences

The meaning of a declarative sentence is a proposition, a representation of an object at a time. That representation is built out of the meanings of the individual words in a sentence. So when a declarative is sentence is used by a speaker, a proposition is communicated. However, in many contexts, additional propositions are communicated by a speaker's use of a sentence. These propositions go beyond the sentence's meaning, and are the result of a hearer drawing inferences based on what the speaker said in conjunction with other considerations. These are pragmatic inferences. This class is about how they are derived, what distinguishes them, and how to explain them. We will consider inferences derived with considerations about the speaker's cooperativity (implicatures), inferences derived with facts about the broader structure of the discourse (elicitures), inferences derived from world knowledge that seem to enrich a sentence's meaning (implicitures), and more. Depending on interest, we will also consider pragmatic inferences in connection with topics like deception, narrative, and testimony.

PHIL 420: Studies in Ancient Philosophy

In proposing an account of wisdom (sophia) in Republic, Plato was intervening in a longstanding debate about what constitutes the highest intellectual virtue for a human being, which people are genuinely wise, and what authority and rewards, if any, the wise should enjoy. This seminar begins with an investigation into the terms and stakes of the debate. We will then focus on the Republic’s account of wisdom and its relation to craft-knowledge, theoretical knowledge, philosophy, and politics. The seminar closes with a critical reflection of Plato’s account of wisdom, especially in comparison with other ancient and contemporary views.